Room to Dream

Every book I read teaches me something; this one reminded me that memory is a tricky beast.

Room to Dream takes a unique approach to biography: each chapter written by a biographer (in this case, Kristine McKenna) is followed by a chapter written by the subject (in this case, director David Lynch). I confess that, about halfway through the book, I found myself skipping the McKenna chapters.

Every book I read teaches me something; this one reminded me that memory is a tricky beast. Friends and acquaintances of Lynch remember an event happening one way; Lynch will remember it di!erently. Lynch encounters a photograph documenting a high school kiss that he doesn’t remember … but another kiss, never photographed, proves more present, more durable, more meaningful.

Looking back at my own life, I wonder: how many of the scenes I turn over in my mind again and again — a fleeting kiss, an intimate late-night conversation with a friend, the loss of virginity, a date gone sour, a friend’s car accident, roads not taken — are more manufactured than remembered?

Mark McElroy: lives in Atlanta | is blogging again | is author of a dozen books | works as a professional storyteller | has a husband | is working on a novel | is an engaging public speaker | lost fifty pounds in 2017 | is a little obsessed with pizza.